Lesson 1 land lottery (you read about this in Unit 6).

Oscar Micheaux and Gertrude His number was not drawn. Instead, he Simmons Bonnin bought a claim from someone else. It was

Beginning in 1904, people settled the just south of the town of Gregory.

lands west of the Missouri River. They took Micheaux became a successful farmer. Five

land claims on the newly opened reservation years later, he bought more claims in Tripp

lands. They came from all over the world County. This land was just west of Winner.

and from all walks of life. One man was the Now he owned nearly one thousand acres of

son of former slaves. land.

Oscar Micheaux Micheaux also wrote about life in

Oscar Micheaux was born on a farm . His first novel was called

in the Ohio River Valley in January 1884. The Conquest: The Story of a Negro

His parents had been slaves before the Civil Pioneer. Another one was The

War. They had thirteen children to help Homesteader. In these books, he told the

them work their farm. Oscar did not like story of living and working on the land

farming, but he liked selling what his family based on his life. He gave the people and

grew. towns new names. Gregory became

As a teenager, Oscar Micheaux left “Megory.” Winner became “Victor.” Then

home to work in Chicago. He worked for the drought came, and crops failed. Micheaux

railroad as a porter. In 1904, he heard lost his land. He moved away. about land openings on the Rosebud Indian Micheaux started a film company in

Reservation. The land was in Gregory New York City. He made films of his

County, South Dakota. He signed up for the books. He made The Homesteader into a movie in 1919. He was the first African to boarding schools. Later she taught at

American to make a movie in the United Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.

States. The film was also the first to star Children went there from all over the United

African Americans. A film crew came to States. They were taught to be like white

Gregory County to make it. Micheaux people. Bonnin did not want the old ways to made over thirty-five films. Some were set be forgotten. She wrote her first book. It in South Dakota. Micheaux has a star on the was about the traditions of Indian peoples.

Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died in 1951. It was called Old Indian Legends.

Gertrude Simmons Bonnin Bonnin began to work on

By 1900, there were hard times on reservations in South Dakota. There she saw the reservations. The Dakota, Lakota, and the hard lives of the people. The

Nakota (Sioux) people were poor. Their government had divided the land into farms. culture was under attack. Children were The Dakotas, Lakotas, and Nakotas had no sent away to school. The government experience as farmers. Their land was not wanted them to be like white people. The good for growing crops. Farming failed.

Indians wanted their own way of life. Indian people sold their land at low prices.

Gertrude Simmons Bonnin was the The government gave them less food and daughter of a white man and a Yankton supplies. The Indians were very poor. woman. She saw the needs of the Indian Gertrude Bonnin was angry. The people. She spoke up for them. She was government was not doing the born on the Yankton Indian Reservation in right things. It was treating her people badly.

1875. Her Nakota name was Zitkala-Sa It was not doing what it said in the treaties.

(“Red Bird”). She went to local schools and The people were sick and dying. They lived in shacks. The government was not taking good care of Indian lands. It did not see the value in native ways. Bonnin spoke about these things in public. In 1916, she moved to Washington, D.C. There she worked for

Indian rights. Later she started the National

Council of American Indians to speak up for

Indians. Her work helped. The government made changes for the better in the 1930s.

Bonnin died in 1938.

Vocabulary culture (n.), ways of doing things that are learned from one’s society or community experience (n.), learning gotten by seeing and doing novel (n.), a long story made up by the writer porter (n.), a person who waits on people riding in a railroad car traditions (n.), customs passed down from older to younger people Lesson 2 Charles Mix County. Here he learned that

Peter Norbeck and Mary Shields low rainfall made farming hard. Wells were Pyle needed to water the crops and the livestock.

At first, the people who governed the Most wells in South Dakota were artesian state of South Dakota were from other wells. They were very deep. It cost a lot of places. They came to the state as adults. money to drill them. Norbeck found a way

They were homesteaders or town builders. to drill wells that cost less money. Soon he

After 1900, people who grew up in the area was drilling wells all across South Dakota. took over the task of governing. These Norbeck set up his business in leaders helped the state find its own identity. Redfield in Spink County. Voters elected

Peter Norbeck him to the state senate in 1908. Later the

Peter Norbeck was the first people of South Dakota elected him governor to be born in Dakota. He was also governor. He tried different ways to solve the first United States senator from South problems for citizens. He set up state hail

Dakota to be born here. As a young man, he insurance for farmers. He started a coal helped to solve water problems. As mine and a cement plant. He helped to set up governor and senator, he built parks and Custer State Park. Today, his work with roads. His work left a special heritage for parks is what we remember most.

South Dakota. In 1920, Norbeck won a seat in the

Norbeck was born in a dugout in . From there, he worked southeastern Dakota Territory. The year was to get scenic roads built in the Black Hills.

1870. Later his family moved west of the Soon Needles Highway and Iron Mountain

Missouri River. They homesteaded in Road were built. Norbeck also found money for other parks and memorials. Norbeck died Votes for women seemed only right

in 1936. to someone like Mary Pyle. She worked to

Mary Shields Pyle change the law that said only men could

From 1904 to 1915, many single vote. Pyle was a good public speaker. Soon

women took claims in South Dakota. she was president of the State Woman

Married women still worked mostly in the Suffrage Association. She talked to people

home. Neither could vote, but many women all across the state. She wrote about woman

wanted to vote. Then the First World War suffrage for the newspapers. In 1918, South

sent South Dakota men to the battlefield. Dakota women won the right to vote. They

Women took more roles outside the home. could vote in state elections. Two years

They soon wanted more rights. later, women across the United States gained

Mary (“Mamie”) Shields was born in the vote. This was done through the

1866. She moved to Dakota Territory as a Nineteenth Amendment to the United States

young girl. She worked as a schoolteacher in Constitution. Pyle helped make South

Brookings and Hand counties. She married Dakota one of the first states to ratify the

John L. Pyle and later moved to Huron. amendment.

After her husband died in 1902, Mary Pyle The right to vote was important to

had little money. She also had four children Pyle. It made women full citizens. Now

she had to feed. She took over her they could run for public office. Pyle died

husband’s work. She ran his business. She in 1949. Her daughter, Gladys Pyle,

was active in civic affairs. She served on followed in her mother’s footsteps. Gladys the Board of Trustees for Huron College. Pyle served as a state legislator and United

She was active in the local Red Cross. States senator. She used the rights her mother had won.

Vocabulary amendment (n.), a revision or change civic (adj.), belonging to a city dugout (n.), a hole dug into a hillside used as a house governor (n.), the head of a state ratify (v.), to approve suffrage (n.), the right to vote Lesson 3 Clark soon wrote for the magazine all the

Charles Badger Clark, Jr., and Ida time. Anding McNeil In 1910, Clark returned to South

Before long, South Dakota had poets Dakota. He settled in the Black Hills. His and writers to sing its praises. One of the cabin in Custer State Park is called Badger best known was a man named Badger. Hole. He wrote several books of poetry.

Charles Badger Clark, Jr. One book was called Sun and Saddle

Charles Badger Clark, Jr., wrote Leather. His book Spike was full of short cowboy poetry. He painted word pictures of stories. Clark’s poems “The Job” and “A cowboys at work. He praised western Cowboy’s Prayer” became favorites all over values. He sang of the beauty of the Black the United States.

Hills. Clark was only three months old when To earn enough money to live on, he came to South Dakota in 1883. By the Clark toured the country telling stories. In time he graduated from high school, he had 1939, the governor named him poet lived in the towns of Plankinton, Mitchell, laureate of South Dakota. He died in 1957.

Huron, and Deadwood. Ida Anding McNeil

Then his life changed. He got In the 1920s, farmers and ranchers tuberculosis. A dry climate often helped to were often isolated. Towns were far apart cure this disease. Clark spent four years as a in South Dakota, and roads were still poor. ranch hand near Tombstone, Arizona. He Telephones and radios helped shrink the wrote poems about working on the ranch. distance. They put rural people in touch with

His stepmother sent one to a magazine. The the rest of the world. Ida Anding McNeil magazine was called the Pacific Monthly. was a pioneer in radio broadcasting. Ida Anding was born in 1888. She She gave many hours to public service. Her

came to South Dakota when she was eight most popular program was “Hospital News.”

years old. Her father worked on steamboats. McNeil told about the patients at the

He came to fix a ferry on the Missouri River hospital in Pierre. Doctors and ranchers

at Pierre and stayed. After Ida Anding liked this service. Ranch families who lived

graduated from high school, she worked for far away could learn about family members.

the South Dakota State Historical Society. McNeil let the family know when to come to

She made the first state flag. She resigned town to take the patient home. McNeil also

from her job when she married Dana reported the weather so that ranchers could

McNeil. get their livestock in if a storm was coming.

Dana McNeil worked on the Chicago McNeil was given many awards for

& North Western Railway. He also had one her service to the community. She is in the of the first amateur radio licenses in the South Dakota Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame. country. Ida Anding McNeil broadcast the She died in 1974. news to him during his train trips between Vocabulary

Rapid City and Pierre. People on farms and amateur (adj.), set up for fun and not for pay ranches listened to her broadcasts. She broadcasting (n.), sending out a radio or started to say things for these extra ears to television program hear. She set up a schedule. People always commercial (adj.), set up to make money knew when to turn on their radios for the isolated (adj.), without any near neighbors; separate; alone news from Pierre. laureate (adj.), honored In 1927, Ida Anding McNeil got a tuberculosis (n.), a disease that causes sores commercial license. Her station was KGFX. on lungs and bones Lesson 4 home to his grandmother to recover. She

Oscar Howe and Francis Case taught him many Nakota traditions and symbols. He used these in his paintings. In 1933, President Franklin Howe later went back to school in Roosevelt created the New Deal. This New Mexico. Here he began studying art. government program gave help to people He graduated second in his class from the art during the Great Depression. This was a program at the Santa Fe Indian School. His time of business failures and drought (read work was shown in cities across the United more about this in Unit 9). The New Deal States. Howe came back to South Dakota gave jobs to unemployed workers. People during the Great Depression. He began could then pay their bills. In return, the working for the Artists Project of the New country got roads, parks, dams, and works of Deal. He painted murals in Mitchell and art. Mobridge. Oscar Howe The Second World War (learn about As a child, Oscar Howe drew in the this in Unit 9) ended the New Deal. Howe dirt with sticks because he did not have served as a United States soldier. He went paper and pencils. He overcame many such to North Africa and Europe. When he came troubles to become a great artist. Howe was home, he began to work at the Mitchell Corn a Yanktonais Nakota (Sioux). He was born Palace. He created murals of corn for this on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation in building. Howe also started his college 1915. He started school at the Pierre Indian education. When he was done, he worked as School. Then his troubles began. His art director for the Pierre schools. Later he mother died. An eye disease nearly blinded became a teacher at the University of South him. He got a painful skin disease. He went Dakota. Howe’s art is known around the when the State Game Lodge became the world. He was artist laureate of South Summer White House.

Dakota. He died in 1983, but his art lives In 1936, voters elected Case to the on. United States House of Representatives. He

Francis Higbee Case served seven terms in the House. He then

Many changes followed the Second moved to the Senate. In Washington, Case

World War. Projects began on the Missouri promoted dam projects. His efforts helped

River. Four big dams were built in South to fund four big dams on the Missouri River.

Dakota. They made irrigation possible in Case was also known for his work for dry years. In wet years, they helped with weather modification. He thought that flood control. The dams made hydroelectric scientists could change the weather. If it power in all seasons. rained more, South Dakota farmers could

Francis Higbee Case helped bring grow more crops. Case also worked for these dams to South Dakota. He was born in better highways across the state and nation.

Iowa in 1896. His family moved to Sturgis He died in 1962. when he was thirteen years old. After Vocabulary college, Case went to work for the Rapid hydroelectric (adj.), making electricity by the force of running water City Journal. He later worked for the Hot irrigation (n.), bringing water to dry land Springs Star and the Custer Chronicle. On through ditches, pipes, or streams the job, Case promoted the Black Hills. He murals (n.), paintings or other works of art done on a wall or ceiling asked President Calvin Coolidge to come to promoted (v.), pushed to the front Custer State Park. Coolidge took his unemployed (adj.), out of work; jobless vacation there in 1927. Tourism boomed